(WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, OH) — Earlier this week, the U.S. House passed the final Fiscal Year 2026 (FY 26) appropriations minibus package in a step to avoid a partial government shutdown on January 31st. However, language that would allow consumers across the country to access fuels with a 15% corn ethanol blend, often referred to as E15, was once again left out of that sprawling spending package.
That move has angered and frustrated many agriculture and ethanol industry stakeholders who have worked for years to finally get E15 legislation across the finish line, providing a choice for consumers at the pump and another demand source for farmers.
Jed Bower, President of the National Corn Growers Association, highlighted that this unwelcome news comes even after much of this past fall was spent crafting a deal between ethanol, oil industry representatives and agriculture stakeholders.
“We got a call this fall from the White House saying, we know you guys continue to push for E-15, we need you to get together with the oil side and come to an agreement,” Bower said. “And so obviously we sent a team to the White House, Growth Energy, RFA were there, API was there, brought in a couple big oil producers with them. We hashed this out. And I can tell you, unfortunately, corn didn’t get everything it wanted. But in an agreement, that’s kind of how it works sometimes. But I can promise all your listeners, oil didn’t get everything they wanted either. But we were both happy at the end of the day with something that we could truly live with. And that made the White House happy.”
Bower went on to say that after that deal was reached, it was presented to multiple champions on Capitol Hill including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) who indicated that he wanted to get it done this year after seeing DOGE pull E-15 language out at the end of 2024. But when asked, Bower agreed that it feels like “the rug has been pulled out from under E15” once again after that similar action happened at the end of 2024.
“And that brings us to where we were here when it got pulled out. Extremely disappointing, frustrating,” said Bower. “We’ve seen this last year on our sector, but we’ve seen Congress act like this now, unfortunately, for not one, not two, but multiple years. And now here we are, as I mentioned, highly disappointed. But all the growers need to understand that this isn’t over, and we’re not quitting. We are engaged.”
E-15 sales are currently limited in the summer months due to air quality regulations under the Clean Air Act. Multiple stakeholders across the industry have been trying for years to make E-15 sales available year-round and to give consumers a choice at the pump, along with a potential cost-savings when they fill up their vehicle.
Bower says that NCGA and it’s partners across the ag and ethanol industry will continue to push for E-15 in hopes of finally getting it across the finish line soon on Capitol Hill. “We are still in communications with the American Petroleum Institute. We are still aligned together on the deal that we made that was bipartisan and brought agriculture and oil together. And we together are going to continue to push that to the committee,” Bower said. “And that cheaper fuel source, people are going to buy. It’s going to be a demand driver. And in turn, obviously, that’s going to help all of us across rural America as we look for bigger and better things moving down and working with the other commodity organizations as we truly try to look for long-term fixes for the situation rural America is in now.”
You can hear the full conversation with NCGA President Jed Bower below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92P7iVgjWeg
